


Operation Doe

by camichats



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, Marauders' Era, Masturbation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-05
Packaged: 2018-09-07 22:05:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8817901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: James has been single for a month after he and Lily separated, and Sirius will not let this stand!





	

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt "Okay so prongsfoot where James & lily have broken up and Sirius is trying to be a good mate and set James up with people. he sets him up with regulus and that's when they both realize they love each other but they don't think the other feels the same"
> 
> (reposting from when this work was deleted)

 

Sirius nudged James’s foot with his own. “C’mon, Prongs, Dorcas is nice and I bet you can’t give one good reason to not date her.” 

“She’s friends with Lily?” he tried. 

“No she isn’t. Okay, well, maybe a bit, but it’s not like she’s Marlene or Mary where they’re actually close. Not all girls are best mates, you know.” 

James groaned and covered his face with his hands, bumping up his glasses to do so. “Why are you trying to set me up with anyone at all?” 

“Because a stag like you can’t be on the open market like this! You and Evans split a month ago, and you were only dating for like two. It’s high time to move on, like with  _ Dorcas _ .” 

James wanted to whimper pathetically at that, but restrained himself and sighed instead. He took off his glasses fully, letting his head get a break from something as silly as seeing (it’s not like he was looking at anything but the ceiling anyways). “Can’t you just call her Lily?” 

“Don’t be absurd. As your ex, I no longer have to play nice with her.” 

James frowned and propped himself up on his elbows to look in the vague direction of his best friend. “You got meaner when I started dating her, not nicer.” 

“I can hardly be blamed for that, she was taking up all your free time,” Sirius replied unrepentantly. 

His frown deepened for a moment and then he flopped back on the duvet, letting Sirius’s strange response to Lily slip from his mind. “I’m not going to ask out Dorcas.” 

Sirius sighed aggravatedly and rubbed his temples. “Prongs-- James, Jamie, mate. Why. Not.” 

“I don’t fancy her.” 

“No shit,” he said flatly. “Well seeing as I have now tried setting you up with all the eligible girls in our year, perhaps you could shed some light on what type of bird you’re wanting. And I swear to Merlin, you had better not say someone with Evans’s hair because there is no one in the entire fucking school with hair like that other than her.” 

“Did you ever think that I don’t  _ want _ to date?” 

Sirius scoffed. “You’re seventeen, of course you want to date. Or at least have someone to get off with every now and then.” 

James rolled his eyes and pushed his glasses back on, sitting up. “I. Don’t want. To date. Any. Of the girls here.” 

“Wait you’ve been wanting a bloke this whole time and you didn’t say anything? For fuck’s sake Prongs, this changes everything!” Sirius briskly walked out of the room before James could think to stop him. 

He stared blankly at the door after Sirius. “I didn’t…”  _ mean I wanted a bloke _ . Oh well. He could reject the men just as easily as he had the women. 

Sirius didn’t mention dating prospects for the rest of the day, and James hoped that he had let it go. He should’ve known better, really. 

It was night, when the Marauders were all crawling into their four posters to sleep, that Sirius instead went into James’s. He closed the curtains and cast a silencing spell so Moony wouldn’t yell at them. “Okay. I’ve been going about Operation Doe all wrong--” 

“Operation Doe?” 

Sirius rolled his eyes like James had already had this explained to him in great detail. “Yes, to find you someone to date. Back to the point, I was thinking about this in the wrong way. I was just throwing women your way, but that’s not how you work. Somehow, my little deer prefers to be a predator in the dating field.” 

“Does… that mean you’re going to let me do this myself?” he ventured hopefully. 

“And let you spend six years working for a two month reward? No. You, my dear-” James had no clue whether he meant dear or deer and had stopped guessing months ago “-just need to pick a better match. We’ll work on it tomorrow.” Sirius started extricating himself and prepared to leave. “For tonight, just have a nice wet dream so you can give me something to work with.” He grinned and took down the silencing spell, closing the curtain again once he left. 

James woke from a dream in the middle of the night, startled, but unable to remember why. It had been something in his dream, but the more he tried to remember, the more frustrated he got when all he could remember was grey eyes, and black hair. He grumbled and rolled to his side, gasping as the movement suddenly called attention to the erection he hadn’t even noticed. He closed his eyes to try and sleep, but attempting to ignore the growing ache between his legs just made it worse. 

With a forceful sigh, he reached under his pillow and cast a silencing spell. He shoved his pants down and off, flicked his wand again, and touched his hardness with a newly slicked hand, groaning. He tried again to recall the details of his-- very good-- dream, but now the only remnant he had was black hair. He worked his hand up and down, easily letting his mind wander in his sleepy state. It didn’t take long for him to come, arching his back slightly and moaning. He cast a quick cleaning spell, pulled his pants back on, and fell asleep without any hassle. 

When James woke the second, more appropriate time to be waking up, he was surprised to find he wasn’t aroused, not even a little. He wasn’t going to complain though, and started getting ready for the day. It wasn’t until he was taking a shower that he remembered his mid-night wank and the dream that caused it. The dream was fuzzy, fuzzier than a dream of that caliber had any right to be. 

And all he could remember was black. 

Sirius started in on Operation Doe during Potions. “Prongs,” he started, looking overly severe, “did you follow your instructions?” 

James rolled his eyes. “You told me to have a wet dream, Padfoot. I hardly think that counts as instructions.” 

Sirius raised an eyebrow. “So you did! Tell me about it,” he ordered, looking eager. 

“I don’t remember anything.” 

“Now is not the time to be a prude, Jamsie! I can’t find the doe to your stag unless you work with me.” 

“It’s not like I asked you to,” he mumbled. “The only thing I remember is black.” 

Sirius blinked. “Black what? Hair? Clothes?” 

James shrugged. “Dunno.” Sirius didn’t say anything for a few seconds, and he added, “Sirius, I don’t want you setting me up with some random guy. Honestly, I don’t want you setting me up with anyone at all, but I’m never going to say yes unless I know them. A friendly acquaintance isn’t going to cut it.” James hoped that would be enough to gut Operation Doe since basically the only people he considered himself to ‘know’ were the Marauders. 

He hummed, looking contemplative. This time when he was silent, James was smart enough to be afraid of what was coming. 

Sirius was unusually quiet during dinner, scanning the Great Hall aimlessly. His eyes locked on someone and he perked up, eyes sparkling triumphantly. “I’ve got it!” he declared, puncturing the air with his fork as he thrust it up for emphasis. 

The other three’s conversation stopped and they looked at him, James worried for the outcome of Sirius’s musings for him to look like that. “What?” he said cautiously. 

“Regulus,” he said matter- of- factly, turning his fork to point at James, who looked over his shoulder as if expecting him to be there. 

“What about him?” 

“You… and him. He’s perfect,” Sirius said deliberately and started ticking off the reasons on his fingers. “He’s a bloke, he’s someone that you know, he’s got black hair,  _ and _ his last name is Black!” 

Remus and Peter shared a confused look. 

James spluttered, “I’m not going to date your brother!” 

“What? Why?” 

“Because, that’s…” he couldn’t find the words but he knew instinctively that it was wrong and settled with, “weird!” 

“How?” 

“He’s your  _ brother _ .” 

“I agree,” Remus said, coming to James’s aid. “Plus, er, all the reasons you listed describe you too.” 

“You don’t even know what we’re talking about Moony,” Sirius waved him off, but internally, he was going over his reasons and noting that, yes, they could all fit him. Probably fit him better than Regulus actually, since James was much closer to him, and they did do that thing where they were touching each other near constantly, and Sirius called him dear (sometimes not even meaning it as deer), and and and…  _ Shit _ . He hid his realisation with a huff and said, “Fine, James, if it’s that bad to you, then just forget about it.” 

James nodded hesitantly but gratefully. He didn’t know why it would be so bad to date Regulus, but really wasn’t that like incest or something? Sirius was like James’s brother! Some part of James cringed at that use of brother and he frowned at it. 

He called it an early night, turning over how he felt about dating Regulus and trying to get to the heart of it. He discovered that he didn’t like calling Sirius his brother anymore, which alarmed him. He and Sirius were close, the closest two friends could be, but that hadn’t changed, so what, then, had? 

Unbidden, he thought of the dream. Black. Black like Regulus’s name, like Sirius’s name. James remembered watching his fingers thread through someone’s hair. Black like their hair. He remembered that the person’s hair was long with a slight wave to it. They’d been crouched between his thighs, mouth working, and looked up at him with stunning grey eyes. 

James’s whole body froze, making him feel the thudding of his heart more acutely. 

He’d dreamt that Sirius was sucking his cock. Oh Merlin. What was he going to do? Sirius had suggested James date his  _ bloody brother _ not four hours ago, and here he was, getting hard as he unintentionally imagined kissing and shagging Sirius. It wasn’t just that though, he was also imagining cuddling, and holding his hand, and fucking telling him that he loved him. 

_ I’m in love with Sirius _ , he thought, slightly mortified and not knowing that Sirius was thinking to himself,  _ I’m in love with James _ on the next bed. Both of them were debating with themselves on whether or not they should get up, or maybe just leave the conversation for another day. Sirius had told James to date Regulus, and James had looked horrified at the thought--  _ is it because he thinks of me as his brother and that would be incest or something? _ Sirius wondered. They both came to the same conclusion: best to do it now. 

As such, when they got out of their beds and tried to walk to the other’s, they wound up knocking into each other in the dark. 

“Shit, sorry,” James whispered, stabilizing both of them with his hands on Sirius’s arms. 

“I was coming over to talk to you,” Sirius whispered back. 

James let out a small puff of laughter. “Me too. So, mine or yours?” he asked, not wanting to have this sort of conversation in the middle of their dorm with Remus and Pete a few meters away. 

“Yours,” Sirius said, leading them that direction. If this went sour, he didn’t want to have to wait for James to leave, and if it went well… well, he had already formulated quite the fantasy for it and didn’t want to pass up the opportunity. 

They eased onto James’s bed, pushing the duvet further down so they weren’t laying on half a pile of it. Once the curtains were shut, silenced, and Sirius’s lit wand above them, they tried to talk at the same time, stopping awkwardly after a few syllables. 

Sirius cleared his throat. “You first.” 

“I don’t want to date Regulus.” 

He blinked. “Er, yeah, you said that earlier.” 

“Yeah, no, I just,” he huffed. “Stop trying to set me up with people; I don’t want them. Besides,” he said, shoving Sirius’s shoulder lightly and then draping that arm over his waist, “if I did, I wouldn’t have any time for you.” 

“There’s a simple solution here,” Sirius said, voice strained. 

“Yep. Date you.” 

“Date me?” he repeated dumbly, too distracted to notice how he squeaked. He’d been preparing himself to say it, not hear it. 

“Er, yeah,” James confirmed, sounding unsure of himself. “You know that way, you couldn’t complain I was neglecting you for my boyfriend, cause you’d be him.” 

“Can’t fight that logic.” His voice was coming back down to a normal level and he shuffled closer to James. 

Breath James hadn’t known he’d been holding was released in a whoosh. “Yeah?” 

“Yeah. James?” 

“Hm?” He didn’t think he was capable of forming complete words right now, finding himself lost in the grey of Sirius’s eyes. 

“I’m going to kiss you.” 

James nodded, sighing happily against Sirius’s soft lips when they met his.  As far as both of them were concerned, Operation Doe was now a success. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr [@siriuslystarbucks](http://siriuslystarbucks.tumblr.com/)


End file.
